February 2009

Dreadspire Keep, Ashengate, and Loping Plains

Groceries and some family things took up a portion of my day yesterday, but today is a holiday (woohoo) so it’s still relaxing. In the US I know this day goes by President’s Day (I believe at least) while here in Canada the official name for it is “Family Day”. Basically there were no holidays in February so they made this one up. Not that I’m complaining! Yesterday in game was another round of ‘firsts’ for me. My necromancer is almost level 40. On the side I’ve been trying to level her up because while I enjoy the rogue, I am far more of a caster class when it comes to personality. Be it a healer or a mage sort. I still want to be able to do things ‘with the big kids’ hence the rogue. 

While I was leveling up the necromancer a very kind Paladin by the name of Hystorm came by and buffed me and my pet. While they were in Skyfire (I was in The Overthere) a necromancer level 51 spell dropped and they came all the way back just to give it to me. It was very kind of them and made me realize why I love EQ so much. The community is completely different then any other game I have seen. I belong to the general channels and I’ve never had to turn them off. I’ve not seen anyone be rude or crass or outright mean. Everyone is still talkative and there were (at least last night) over 250 people on these channels. It is so nice and refreshing to see. 

Anyhow, I really appreciated this stranger helping me out. Once Ultann and Ninga were around it was time to play a little. We headed to so many places that I’ve never been. One of my favorites was Dreadspire Keep – apparently this zone involves Mistmoore some how but I don’t know enough about the background story. It was great fun wandering around shrouded until I fell through a trap (rug on the floor) in the dinning room and then as I was wandering around some drachnid something saw me and before I knew it I was staring at my corpse on the floor. Thank goodness I have two wonderful friends (and a cleric mercenary) who were willing to come after my corpse and rez me. 

We also explored portions of Loping Plains. Since EQ2 is 500 years after The Shattering, I had to chuckle to myself that I was seeing the EQ version of Loping Plains well after I saw the EQ2 version of the zone. There’s a lot of zones that are like that for me now. I believe the zone is a hot zone, and if not there were certainly a lot of people around (23+) who were exploring. We managed to find a little camp to set up in and spent a few hours pulling wolves and wereorcs. Their transformation graphic was neat to watch as the morphed into their wereorc counterparts, but after a few hours it was time to move on.

The group decided to make the treck back to Ashengate, since when we had been there the previous night it was too late to really do anything and I ended up going to bed. Last night wasn’t any different though as we entered the zone and the monk went and found our camp, my eyes threatened to close. My rogue managed to get 6aa yesterday and almost a full level, she’s 5% shy of level 73. I’ve been averaging a level or a little less a day without really grinding it at all, just exploring and playing with friends. With the new level cap of 85, I’m still a ways away, especially if I want to eventually switch over to the necromancer. She’s sitting on 137aa now which is also not a lot at all, but it’s still fun to watch the progress. 

I hope everyone else had an amazing time gaming, no matter your game of choice. See you in Norrath!

It’s All About the Clickies

I hope everyone had a fantastic Valentines day, even if you loath the day (which a lot do). I spent it doing what I love to do, a nice relaxing weekend at home (though I did go out to get a few cooler sized bottles of mudslide so I could celebrate) gaming. It was exactly what I wanted to do. I started out with a request, an item that had eluded me for a number of years now. My rogue sports her 1.0 epic, but I’ve never bothered to go any further with it because the 1.5 requires a whole lot of crafting, and I never worked up her craft skills. However, there’s one portion of that epic that I wanted very much. 

A lot of people in EQ remember the clickies. Clicky levitation, clicky invisibility, clicky buffs. So many clickies. We used to hone our collections and polish them with pride. Each clicky told a story, I think that was the main reason why I loved them. Someone would link a clicky they had and then go on to tell the story about how they got it and how long of a camp it was or how difficult the encounter was. I have the exact same feeling when I talk about my rogue masks. It was so difficult for me to obtain some of them, I spent literally two days straight camping place holders for one (of course this was a long time ago now) and even years later I still remember.

It was only natural that I wanted another clicky. The one I didn’t have was a scarecrow illusion. It required me combining the essences of some wisps into an oven along with a skull. Made sense to me! I don’t even remember where I got the skull from, but I had the essence from Befallen and I’d had it for years. The other ones had eluded me, the mobs at the time being too difficult. So when I mentioned to Ninga and Ultann that I’d really like this mask, they decided we would set off to get it. The mobs are level 65, they can’t be snared, they spawn at 0,0 within the zones. So monk and magician went and waited at the spawn points while I was outside the zone, then I’d zone in, get a CoTH (wow so not prepared for those, there’s no confirmation window in EQ) and within a matter of seconds I had my bits. It took an hour or two simply because of the travel times, but before long I was sporting yet another clicky. Exceptionally happy. Even if Seeds of Destruction (latest expansion) removed the need for some masks because there are aa illusions now (boo). 

Afterwards, Ninga (turtle) decided we would go to Earth, and go after something called a swarm weapon for me. This would be a day of firsts, before this we did some missions involving mushrooms and I don’t even recall the name – and I’d never been to earth before. I love my rogue’s Shroud of Stealth ability. I may not be end game by any means with my 117aa, and 10k hp but that one skill is fantastic. I snuck around while Ninga and Ultann did most of the work and we came to a ring event, known as “the Dust” ring event. The last round had all of the mobs spawned beneath the ground and that was a little annoying, but in the end we beat it and two caster shields dropped. Out dated, but it was still pretty nice stuff. We headed to the tunnels to start clearing stone men in hopes of spawning a named and getting a rogue weapon to drop.

A few hours later we’d seen some augments, and LoN cards, and lots of gems, and three no trade masks for healers / casters but no weapon. Ah well. After all of that, we set up a fellowship, a boxed cleric account was activated after the mercenaries decided to let the group die one too many times, and we decided to head to a place called Ashengate, Reliquary of the Scale. 

I’d also never been there. 

It was starting to get late, so I had time to make my way to the zone, help set up a campfire, and then decided to level up my necromancer a bit while one group member dealt with computer issues. Buffed up the little necromancer and headed to The Overthere, which is an old time favorite spot for me and also the hot zone for level 25. With the help of the cleric I dinged 27 before calling it a night and heading to bed. It was a fantastic day of gaming, and I had a lot of fun. I hope everyone else had fun too no matter their game of choice!

See you in Norrath!

Stoneroot Falls, The Warrens, and Fun!

I’ve been really excited about getting to play EQ1 again. I mean, really excited. I love EQ2, but as anyone out there knows it’s typical for me to bounce from games or to play multiple games at once. 

So it was that I found myself on my rogue, doing a mission that I’d never heard of before in Stoneroot Falls, a place called The Hive. At least I think that’s what it was called. It’s pretty much a blur. In the screen shot are Ninga and Ultann, monk and magician. We also grabbed ourselves a healer mercenary to test them out and see how well the little dark elf could hold up our ‘tank’. It worked out a lot better then I thought it would. It has been a while since these two have been back in EQ1, a year or so for one and two years for the other and things have even changed since last I played with the Nostalgia group. First surprise was that you no longer leave a corpse that needs to be looted. When I died I popped up in PoK fully clothed, still lost experience, and still left a corpse that could be rez’d, but no longer naked. It actually made me quite sad and I miss this aspect of the game a lot. I realize that things change in 10 years time but I hope that the game remains the same. If I had any fear it was quickly quelched as the monk pulled a few trains onto us, the healer mercenary ganked agro, and we all died a glorious death. It was fantastic. I have missed it.

I’ve been playing my rogue but really am not much of a melee person, so once the days activities were done (the rogue netted herself a few bits of gear, level 71 which she promptly lost in a train, as well as 9aa) I decided that I’d make something more comfortable for me to play, and went with a necromancer. 

Teamed up with a beastlord we headed to The Warrens to smack some kobold around after picking up pet toys. Ah, how I have missed pet toys! 

It was a lot of fun and it was just great to be playing again. I’m hoping to be able to level up the necromancer with some help and be playing them more often, but we’ll see how it goes. It’s nice to have the rogue to be able to do “big kid” things too as I term it. I haven’t done anything in EQ1 seriously since Omens of War back in 2004. Sure I’ve played, but it’s been in old content. That means I’ve missed out playing in Dragons of Norrath, Depths of Darkhollow (I did do a few missions in this expansion). Prophecy of Ro, The Serpent’s Spine, The Buried Sea, Secrets of Faydwer, and Seeds of Destruction. That’s a lot to catch up on! Not that I was ever a huge raider or anything in EQ1, but it’s going to be nice to visit old content as well as all of the new stuff that I’ve never done before. I may even get back into crafting, I haven’t decided yet. 

Other then that, just going to enjoy a nice quiet weekend. Still recouperating from the flu I had and getting my strength back and what not. Infecting the rest of Ottawa. 

See you in Norrath!

Valentines Ramblings and Instances

Yesterday was another relaxing day, with my flu going away a little bit more. I’m not 100% yet, but I’m confident that I will be sooner rather then later. Of course I made sure to spread the infection to as many denizens of Ottawa as I could in the mean time. If you wondered why some strange woman was out on the streets strewing used tissue around begging for someone to help her pick them all up, well now you have your reason. 

I promised myself when I finished all of my articles on Tuesday, that I would take the rest of the week to slowly absorb the going-ons of the last three weeks. Everything from the crazy passport incidents to the actual trip to San Diego and what it meant to me on a very personal level. My closest friends understand why this was such a huge undertaking, it wasn’t just about flying alone and going to a new place and doing my job but it was about incidents in the past and confronting my fears. I think I did pretty well. Of course it’s easy to say that now that it’s over with. 

So I’ve done just that for this week, done nothing but relax (some dishes, I’ll admit) and relaxed. It may seem odd of me to do, but I think I’ve deserved it. I didn’t really celebrate everything yet, and I plan on doing that Saturday. We’ll see how it goes. 

Yesterday in game I had a lot of fun. I worked on the Valentines quests in Antonica on the mystic, dragging my conjuror friend along with my coercer to partake in the races close to the North Qeynos gates. The rewards to this race (which requires a minimum of 3 people) are flowers, and the first place winners get the really Fancy ones in glass containers. This is the first year I’ve done any of the valentines stuff, you may recall that last year at this time I was playing Vanguard full time which is why I’ve never done the Valentines stuff before. I managed to gather one of all the fancy flowers, and purchased the new valentines crafting books as well making a bunch of everything. 

Ultann, Wpus and I did our regular Obelisk run where the shield did not drop (of course not!), we also did Vaults hoping for the guard for Wpus and we even got a master chest at the end of the instance but of course it had to be fabled scout pants and not the item we wanted. We also did CoA and no healer ring (or caster ring for that matter) dropped (again). We did Chelsith and the belt Ultann wants did not drop (not have we even seen it to date). Ah well. My coercer did manage to ding level 78, which was great. She’s about 30% into the level now, and getting closer to being able to wear all this gear I’ve been holding for her. 

Now I need to catch my minstrel up to the group in LoTRO, and I’d like to play a little EQ1 and VG this weekend too. Monday is ‘family day’ here in Canada and I believe in the US as well, so it’s a long weekend, should be lots of time to game! I hope everyone is having a fantastic friday, and I hope that those who are close to me forgive me for my distance over the past little while. I love and appreciate everyone in my life so much and I know just how lucky I am.

Obelisk Goodness

Yesterday the mission of the day was Obelisk. You know the one in Moors that’s not too difficult and requires a lot of bouncing around for one named? Well, my trio had attempted to do this zone just us a few weeks ago, before I was level 80 on the mystic and before we’d gotten any void shard gear or anything like that. The two void creatures by the first doorway tore into us pretty bad, it wasn’t a good sight. We decided yesterday to attempt it again, me boxing the 77 coercer along with my 80 mystic, the shadowknight and conjuror I typically play with. The conjuror has masters of all his pets now, and is sporting a full set of T2 void shard gear, the shadowknight has won a few masters as well and is sporting his full set. I only have two pieces of mine and the coercer is wearing a mish mash of gear – but we managed to clear the entire zone with just the three of us. 

I was so proud.

There are some people who have fun in game doing quests, others decorating, or raiding, or hanging out with friends or doing multiple other avenues of things. Lately, I’ve been having the most fun taking down encounters with three people that are difficult (or at least I consider difficult) that we wouldn’t typically be able to beat. None of us are raid geared, none of us have our mythical and so these encounters are actually hard and require us to be on top of things. My mystic doesn’t even have her fabled epic yet (I know, I’ve been slacking). 

It was a LOT of fun, and even though I didn’t see the healer shield, knowing that we can beat it now was very satisfying. We also did a Chelsith run and Vaults, as well as all of the regular TSO instances for void shards. The coercer is sitting on 20 now and since she’s not 80 yet she’ll be able to at least get a set of gear made by the time she gets there. The mystic is a little behind, but that’s alright. 

I’m (finally) starting to feel human again after being sick for a week. My nose is still dripping (ew) but at least the hacking cough has died down quite a bit. Looking forward to feeling even more human in the upcoming days. Today? Valentines stuff!